Real Life Awaiting Real Life

God is Our Strength

I think most people, including myself, get pretty freaked out at times. The world can be a scary place. The things that happen to us through the course of life can, at times, cause enough fear that we freeze; we freeze at a time and moment in our lives where we no longer progress, no longer move forward, no longer keep building and growing. We more or less quit. Stasis. Death.

I think this is more common than most of us even realize. At some point in our lives we can begin to play it perhaps too safe. We learn that we “can’t do it” and so we stop trying. The reasons for this are many, but I think most of them have to do with our fear of getting hurt. Hurt physically, hurt emotionally. Its the very few who actually keep moving forward. Many of the few who move on and keep risking, keep building and growing, etc. can be categorized as the very brave, the very ignorant, and even the very dysfunctional.

The Very Brave

Some people just have that thing in them. You know the thing I am talking about? It’s a kind of moral compass that brings them into situations and circumstances which require them to be brave. Bravery only happens when we fear something and when that something we fear threatens the well-being of ourselves or others. These kinds of people stick their necks out when others won’t. I’ve known a few people in my lifetime who fit this description. When others run away, they run toward. It’s just who they are. And though they share the same fear, uncertainty and anxiety that everyone does, they are not deterred by it.

The Very Ignorant

These people just don’t know that what they’re doing is even risky. They move through life with a kind of blissful obliviousness about them. They aren’t motivated to do hard things or to face danger because of some internal moral compass, they just don’t realize that there is a struggle going on around them. They don’t know that they should be afraid. These kinds of people can actually BE dangerous themselves because they tend not to take regard for the well-being of those around them. They simply assume everyone feels as they do. They often don’t measure the risk.

The Very Dysfunctional

Then there are those who gravitate toward risk and danger because they need to. The risk and danger they face at any given time represents something else for them. A war they are still waging. They need to risk. They need to feel the anxiety and experience the chaos. It’s a kind of therapy. A high. It reminds them they’re alive. These types of people are most dangerous because they don’t fight for a noble cause; they fight only for themselves.

A Fourth Category – The Very Faithful

These are very general descriptions, of course. Notice the reasons for facing risk and danger for each type of individual move in a progression: from self-sacrificial to no reason to self-centered. Outward > neutral > inward. But there is a fourth category. One that transcends the others. Psalm 46:10 says:

Be still (have no fear) and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

This is a totally different reason for “not fearing”. The motivation comes from another place. It doesn’t depend on our internal moral compass and our ability to pluck up the courage. It doesn’t require us to be ignorant. It also does not require that we possess some kind of weird internal struggle which motivates us to find danger and chaos and crisis. What it does require is for us to know Who is in charge.

Psalm 46 is a Psalm about conquering fear. It grants the first premise of courage which is:

There are things which are worthy of fear.

Courage (literally, strength of heart) is not the absence of fear, but the presence of faith in the midst of fear. And if the first premise of courage is true, that there are things which are worthy of fear, then it stands to reason that what we then require is a catalyst. Something that, when introduced into the mix, produces a sort of steadfast faith or unconquerable hope. That thing is actually a person; the God of Jacob.

The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah (v.7)

What we need is Someone who fears nothing. Someone of whom all others in fact should be afraid. Someone whose faithfulness and character are such that to know Him is to stand upon a Rock which cannot be moved.

We will not fear…

“But the oceans are roaring like a typhoon!

We will not fear…

“But the mountains are crumbling into the depths of the sea!

We will not fear…

“But your world is falling out from under you!

The God of Jacob is our fortress.

It’s not a fearlessness born of bravery, ignorance or dysfunction, but a fearlessness born of faith in a God Whose will cannot be resisted, Whose plans are holy, perfect and good, and Whose love casts out all fear.

Have no fear. The God of Jacob is your fortress. He will be praised among the nations. He will be exalted in all the earth. Selah.